OSX install with no cdrom drive

I have an imac G3 with 288mb ram and a 6gb hard drive. the cdrom drive in it is dead. it would cost a fortune for a new cdrom drive, well more then i have spend of the mac its self anyway. can i install OSX with only one mac with no cdrom drive and a PC with one? anyone tried this. im also trying to emulate a mac under linux and try install it over a network. will mac os 7.5.3 read a mac os x CD? preferable OSX 10.3.
Thanks in advance.

i can read the OS 10.3 installation CD under OS 8.6, i dont see why it wouldnt read on OS 7.5.3, it uses the same file system. im not sure you can install over a network unless under Startup Disk in control panels/system preferences you see it as a network start up disk or can choose a network startup disk.

you might be able to buy an affordable external USB cd rom if you cant install any other way.

thanks, but about the CDROM. someone said it wont boot from external CDROM. is this true? has anyone gotten an iMac booting from some sort of external usb cdrom drive? i have been offered a CDR Drive for about 150 euros, which is about 50 euros more then just a standard imac cdrom drive, and it sounds good, but dont want to buy it if it cant boot from CD.
Thanks in advance.

im not sure if it works with external CD ROMs, but you can try to choose the drive as your startup disk while the CDs in the tray. or on start up (OS 9 and later) you can hold down the Option key, and see if the disk shows up

if that doesnt work heres a boot up command to choose a specified drive:

Command-Option-Shift-Delete or Command-Option-Shift-Delete-#, where # is the SCSI ID of the drive from which you wish to boot

hmmm. thanks. ill see if i can borrow an external drive for testing and see if it works.